angrygnome
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Tenor Outdoor Ukulele (Now includes a review.)
While I know the soprano model that has been out for a while gets mixed reviews, I thought some people here might be interested in this. Just went on pre-order today. They say they have a limited number in this run and that they'll ship on Monday (7/20). This run only has the 'bottle brown' model. The next run (end of the month/beginning of next month) will have bottle brown and 'natural' (translucent). $150 isn't bad in my opinion and I've always liked my OU soprano (for what it is).
Link to their site:
http://www.outdoorukulele.com/products/outdoor-ukulele-tenor
Demo video of their prototype:
More pictures and videos are available on their facebook page.
I already bought one... can't wait to get it. (I know this probably sounds like an advertisement, but I just like the concept of these ukes.)
EDIT: 7/25/2015 - A quick review and images of the OU I just received today:
First let me say that I have been a fan of the OU for a while. Opinions seem to be pretty divided on the original OU soprano. It would be a generalization (but I don't think entirely untrue) to say that you either love it or you hate it. I've always loved mine. That being said, I have had a few complaints about the soprano (keep in mind that I was one of the first 10 orders, so they may have made improvements to the soprano later that I didn't see):
- The squared neck is difficult to get used to and I was never able to get 100% comfortable with it.
- The grooves in the nut are far too shallow. On more than one occasion I had the A string pop out of place while playing hard and/or fast. This is disappointing when you can't replace the nut.
- The frets are WAY too tall. This video does a good job of showing how you can easily sharpen a note by playing too hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r89dXr9JbpM
I mention my issues with the soprano OU because they have all been fixed in the tenor! The neck is rounded and comfortable, the grooves in the nut have a proper depth, and the frets are much shorter. The action is nice and low and you only have to press lightly to get good tone. However, even if you have a bit more of a heavy hand, you won't make the notes go sharp as was possible on the soprano.
In terms of sound quality, I feel like the tenor has a great tone and sounds less 'plasticy' to my ear than the soprano. The tenor also sounds a bit milder and perhaps a tad quiet. However, I think some of that can be attributed to the strings that come on it. I have Aquila reds on my soprano and they made a huge difference in the volume and quality of sound I was able to get out of it. I imagine the same will be true for the tenor. The strings that come on the tenor OU are not horrible, but they just don't cut it for me. Overall I would rate the sound quality 'good' even when compared to similarly priced wood ukes. I would rate it 'excellent' if it is only compared against other plastic/non-wood ukes.
Obviously the tenor is heavier than the soprano. A lot of the weight seems to be in the neck, rather than just at the headstock with the metal tuners. The neck feels solid and high quality (much more solid than the soprano's neck). I imagine it is reinforced against the additional tension of the tenor strings. The OU comes with Grover open tuners that work well and as you would expect. I also really love the color. It's hard to tell that it is brown until you bring it into sunlight. It has a translucent, chocolate color to it in the right light that I like more than my original black model soprano.
Overall I would say that I am quite impressed. It's obvious that the people at OU learned from the feedback given by people who purchased the soprano. I think it's a steal for $150 as long as you don't expect it to sound like a more expensive wood uke. I think most people understand that this is not meant to replace their nice wood uke. That being said, at this price point I don't think I'd choose anything else.
Comparison pictures with the OU soprano (sorry a couple are a bit blurry):
Front Compared:
Side Compared:
I have too many pictures so I've included more as links:
Soprano Nut
Tenor Nut
Soprano Frets
Tenor Frets
Headstock Front
Headstock Back
Sound hole
While I know the soprano model that has been out for a while gets mixed reviews, I thought some people here might be interested in this. Just went on pre-order today. They say they have a limited number in this run and that they'll ship on Monday (7/20). This run only has the 'bottle brown' model. The next run (end of the month/beginning of next month) will have bottle brown and 'natural' (translucent). $150 isn't bad in my opinion and I've always liked my OU soprano (for what it is).
Link to their site:
http://www.outdoorukulele.com/products/outdoor-ukulele-tenor
Demo video of their prototype:
More pictures and videos are available on their facebook page.
I already bought one... can't wait to get it. (I know this probably sounds like an advertisement, but I just like the concept of these ukes.)
EDIT: 7/25/2015 - A quick review and images of the OU I just received today:
First let me say that I have been a fan of the OU for a while. Opinions seem to be pretty divided on the original OU soprano. It would be a generalization (but I don't think entirely untrue) to say that you either love it or you hate it. I've always loved mine. That being said, I have had a few complaints about the soprano (keep in mind that I was one of the first 10 orders, so they may have made improvements to the soprano later that I didn't see):
- The squared neck is difficult to get used to and I was never able to get 100% comfortable with it.
- The grooves in the nut are far too shallow. On more than one occasion I had the A string pop out of place while playing hard and/or fast. This is disappointing when you can't replace the nut.
- The frets are WAY too tall. This video does a good job of showing how you can easily sharpen a note by playing too hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r89dXr9JbpM
I mention my issues with the soprano OU because they have all been fixed in the tenor! The neck is rounded and comfortable, the grooves in the nut have a proper depth, and the frets are much shorter. The action is nice and low and you only have to press lightly to get good tone. However, even if you have a bit more of a heavy hand, you won't make the notes go sharp as was possible on the soprano.
In terms of sound quality, I feel like the tenor has a great tone and sounds less 'plasticy' to my ear than the soprano. The tenor also sounds a bit milder and perhaps a tad quiet. However, I think some of that can be attributed to the strings that come on it. I have Aquila reds on my soprano and they made a huge difference in the volume and quality of sound I was able to get out of it. I imagine the same will be true for the tenor. The strings that come on the tenor OU are not horrible, but they just don't cut it for me. Overall I would rate the sound quality 'good' even when compared to similarly priced wood ukes. I would rate it 'excellent' if it is only compared against other plastic/non-wood ukes.
Obviously the tenor is heavier than the soprano. A lot of the weight seems to be in the neck, rather than just at the headstock with the metal tuners. The neck feels solid and high quality (much more solid than the soprano's neck). I imagine it is reinforced against the additional tension of the tenor strings. The OU comes with Grover open tuners that work well and as you would expect. I also really love the color. It's hard to tell that it is brown until you bring it into sunlight. It has a translucent, chocolate color to it in the right light that I like more than my original black model soprano.
Overall I would say that I am quite impressed. It's obvious that the people at OU learned from the feedback given by people who purchased the soprano. I think it's a steal for $150 as long as you don't expect it to sound like a more expensive wood uke. I think most people understand that this is not meant to replace their nice wood uke. That being said, at this price point I don't think I'd choose anything else.
Comparison pictures with the OU soprano (sorry a couple are a bit blurry):
Front Compared:
Side Compared:
I have too many pictures so I've included more as links:
Soprano Nut
Tenor Nut
Soprano Frets
Tenor Frets
Headstock Front
Headstock Back
Sound hole
Last edited: